CaboPress – A Unique Business Conference

We just got back from CaboPress, an incredible business conference in Cabo San Lucas. It was truly amazing. Yes, we spent a glorious week under straw umbrellas, in pools, and even snorkeling in the clear blue ocean. But the most amazing part of it was the business discussions and the connections that we made with like-minded people.

Intentional Business Conversations

The small conference was centered around intentional business discussions which took place in pools. Each morning, small groups met to discuss topics such as hiring, mental health, marketing, branding, podcasts, and more. We didn’t choose the topics of discussion during these guided times in the pool. The whole conference and these discussions were put together by Chris Lema. He did a brilliant job of strategically setting up the discussions and inviting hosts that brought great value and knowledge to specific areas of business.

We were so grateful to glean from each of them as well as the other conference attendees. Through the course of many of these different discussions, we set new goals and were challenged in incredible ways in our business.

Making Connections with Others

It was also a fantastic opportunity to connect with other business owners and ask questions of many brilliant minds. Everyone at this small conference seemed to be all-in, ready to share, contribute, and help others grow their businesses. These conversations were purposeful and challenging. We were encouraged to focus more on marketing than product development at this point in our journey.

We truly enjoyed making new friends as well as reconnecting with old ones.

 

Takeaways for our Business

We definitely finished the five days with heads full of knowledge and could write pages on what we learned. Here are just a few of our specific takeaways…

We headed into CaboPress looking for advice on hiring as we felt that would be our next step, but after conversations with Tony Perez and Chris Lema, we’re now ready to pivot and switch our focus from hiring to marketing. We learned about the importance entrepreneurial mental health and the danger of burn-out from our friend Sherry Walling. We were encouraged to be a part of honest, challenging mastermind groups, (as well as learned how to effectively body surf) from Cory Miller. There were conversations about building your brand with clarity, consistency, and intentionality with Jennifer Bourn. Syed Balkhi shared his proven strategies for increasing sales conversions and keeping customers engaged with your product.

We enjoyed omelets and coffee while discussing SEO with David Payette. We had amazing chocolate tamales (seriously, try one!) while being challenged by our new friends Blair and Bethany Williams. John Doherty was kind enough to share much of his marketing expertise with us over mojitos in a pool. And we laughed with the Lifter LMS and Beaver Builder teams in a not-so-hot hot tub.

We now have TOO many fresh inspiring ideas and things we’d like to accomplish. But if we had to choose our most urgent and top takeaway… it would be to move in a new direction with our product roadmap. Chris Lema challenged us to find out more about who our customers are, their specific pain points, create those adjacent “swim lanes”, and actively pursue and market to them.

We feel so privileged to have been a part of this week at CaboPress. Thank you to Chris, and everyone who spent time with us. We know that this week will have an incredible impact on our business.

I almost didn’t make it back into the fabulous United States. Who knew those tiny little immigration papers are actually quite important. It was an adventure trying to get another one so that they would let me on the plane, but I’m happy to say that I made it and we arrived safely back in California. 🙂

I really think that our best thinking happens in the pool, so we’re definitely going to have to be creative with how we can continue this newfound love as we enter into the chilly months of the fall season.